Rock Follies

Was it really thirty years ago I watched this?

I haven't seen it again since then, but I recently got a chance to watch the British DVDs (the series isn't released in the USA). Seeing the awful boyfriends (Spike and the commune, Jack & Carl) rang all too true - I was at University with some of these guys. The music, of course, is excellent - what else would you expect from Roxy Music? But what really tickled me was seeing several of the 1981 Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy cast - Stephen Moore, David Dixon and Simon Jones (plus, of course, Rula Lenska). In fact some of Stephen Moore's lines as Jack sound as though they could have been written for Arthur Dent - at one point he even complains about Thursdays.

This is the type of show/movie/presentation I like writing about because it is rather obscure and only the 'faithful' will fully understand. PBS in the States in the late 1970's and early 1980's brought over some highly enjoyable British comedic fare, with 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', then 'No, Honestly', 'Rock Follies', and of course, 'Are You Being Served'.

It was, like, once you got hooked on watching one, you would stay to see the next. Rock Follies which followed the trials and tribulations of three young women who hoped to make it as a rock singing group was probably the weakest of the four as it seemed to lurch between biting comedy and bitter sweet drama with each episode showing the girls barely making it in whatever venue they were unceremoniously dropped, and then failure settling in.

If you really enjoy seeing a musical group starting from scratch and following their lives as they face numerous hurdles both professional and personal, with what would appear to be an insider's look at the music business, and you enjoy the music, then I would recommend this. And for those who remember that rather 'infamous' advertisement for a hair product, you'll get to see who Rula Lenska was. One of the first celebutantes (who really was neither, just like some we know today ;)

It's not for everyone's tastes but British tele can be that way to an American audience. Now when does Season 2 of Downton Abbey return?

I watched it and enjoyed it - clever comedy, and the relations between the chief characters kept changing, not re-cycling the same plots as many comedies do.

The three woman come from different backgrounds and have very difference approaches to life. Each also has a distinctive relationship with the man in their life, though this too alters, with some characters growing more important and others dropping out.

I know nothing about the actual pop world but it seemed very plausible, the way ambition would lead to a loss of ideas, not necessarily leading to success.

It's a TV series about theatrical types performed and written by theatrical types, and it doesn't work well on the small screen.

Julie Covington does the tomboy bit which probably inspired Sinead O Conner... Charlotte Cornwell does the mousy middle-aged housewife going through a crisis and Rula Lenska struts around doing a disturbing impersonation of a Las Vegas drag act.

This Thames Television production exploded onto the British consciousnesses in early 1976. I was 16 at the time with much better things to do to occupy my time than watch this. I was left out of a lot of conversations! It was all anyone talked about and the 'girls' sold a zillion magazines touting 'girl power' before it was even invented!

The songs sound like they would do well in a musical. The song 'Little Ladies' is simply unbearably painful to listen to. The acting is so camp and unpolished that it also belongs on a stage where it can never be accurately recalled, too. Unfortunately it's there for all to see.

The peripheral characters are caricatures. The boyfriends are so absurd and annoying that you just want to reach into the screen and punch them senseless. There's lots of shouting, lots of over-acting and lots and lots of smoking! It's allegedly a satire, but I didn't see any. Then again, it's 2018 and maybe 40 years has changed the meaning of the word.

There are some good cameos, though. Kathy Staff (Nora Batty/Mrs Blewitt) is a hoot as the waitress in episode two. Whoever plays the seedy agent in the first episode is funny, too, especially when he's explaining how he wants the Annie Hall production to be a bit more sexed up.

But these moments are too few and far between. In summation... it's just a noisy and annoying mess.

The adventures of three young women from diverse show biz backgrounds meet at an audition and form a rock trio with hilarious results; including a tour where one of the venues is a Scottish country & western bar. Great performances and good singing and outrageous humor. Good songs too! ("I used to be in talkin' pictures, talkin' pictures, if you know what I mean" is a hoot.) British humor at its best by, ironically an American author. My thumbs are way up. Love to see this again - it was run on PBS. RB